1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to the efficient creation and maintenance of a common design for a web site or web based applications.
2. Background Information
With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking and communication technologies, increasing numbers of devices, in particular, digital computing devices, are being networked together. As a result of this trend of increased connectivity, increasing numbers of applications that are network dependent are being deployed. Examples of these network dependent applications include, but are not limited to, email, net-based telephony, world wide web (WWW), and various types of web based e-commerce, commonly referred to as web sites or web based applications. Further, increasing numbers of software applications that were traditionally licensed or distributed through discrete distribution medium, such as diskettes, CDROMs and the like, are being distributed online or offered as web based applications, through private intranets or public networks like the Internet.
Conventionally, web pages of most web sites or web-based applications are typically coded using a mark up language, such as HTML or XHTML. The associated processing logic is typically implemented using a “script” language such as CGI, Javascript, Perl and so forth. Most web sites or web based applications, for at least aesthetic and/or usability reasons, desire a common design, that is having a consistent approach to at least styling elements, such as fonts, color schemes and so forth, and navigation among the pages.
Current prior art approaches to effectuate a common or consistent design to a web site or a web based application are inefficient. FIG. 1 illustrates one such technique. As illustrated, a designer would create navigation page 102 having a navigation arrangement specified in <body> section 114 (which functions as a “content” section). The style elements, such as font, color, and so forth would be specified in <head> section 112 (which functions as a “control” section). These style elements may be explicitly enumerated, or in the alternative, a reference to a style sheet containing these definitions may be specified instead. To effectuate the common design, the designer or designers would replicate (e.g. through cut and paste) the same style specification in each <head> section 132 of each page 104. Further, navigation page 102 would be referenced as content source in one of the <frame> sections 136 of <body> section 134 of each page. The substantive content of each page would be specified employing one or more other <frame> sections 138.
As can be seen, the style and navigation information, at least the references to their definitions, are maintained in each page 102-104. Accordingly, if certain changes are to be made in one or more style elements or the navigation arrangement of the web site or web-based application, the changes must be made in each and every one of the web pages carrying the information. The process, is cumbersome and error prone. This is true, whether the changes are made with the employment of certain web development tool that can automatically ripple the changes to each and every web page, or through a cut and paste approach.
Alternatively, the common design may be effectuated through what is known in the art as “server side includes” (SSI). However, SSI requires one main URL to be employed for all links of a web site or a web-based application. The requirement makes URLs difficult to understand, and as a result makes building links to pages more difficult. Further, the approach makes it very difficult for each page to have custom content in the <head> section. Moreover, if all pages of a web site or a web based application use SSI to define the “common areas”, the pages would have to be changed whenever the shape of the common area changes.
Thus, a more efficient approach to facilitating a common design for a web site or web based application is desired.